


the sun rises slowly as you walk

by jumpfall



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Episode tag: 2x01 (She Knows), Gen, references to canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 22:16:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumpfall/pseuds/jumpfall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another world, Harvey throws himself on the proverbial hand grenade and breaks the news to the kid. As it turns out, this is not that world. [Tag to 2x01]</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sun rises slowly as you walk

**Author's Note:**

> Title credit goes to 'The Cave' by Mumford and Sons.

When Harvey leaves the District Attorney's office, he makes Donna a promise. There is a line, he tells her, and he knows where it is.

At this point in time, Harvey Specter has spent the past few years of his life immersed in the darker side of humanity. He is not a particularly nice person. He still, however, aspires to be a good one.

-

What Mike remembers: fighting to stay awake, curled up under the covers with a book in hand and flashlight tucked between chin and shoulder. He didn't want to miss the two of them drifting in and relieving the babysitter, a bag of leftovers tucked underneath his Dad's arm. They told him they'd bring him a treat, showed him they loved him even though they were going to dinner without him. It was their thirteenth anniversary.

What Mike says: "When I was eleven, my parents were on their way home from dinner."

-

The moment Harvey settles his endgame can be pinpointed to his stumbling across Daniel Hardman holding court in the library with Mike in tow.

That's a lie. Actually, Harvey's move is decided for him when Mike says, "Joe Pesci thought he was getting made. He got dead." WWHD is a very fine philosophy and all, but who is this kid to question whether or not he has seen Goodfellas? He has to keep Mike around long enough to school him properly.

He brings it to Donna first, because he is not a dumb man. Jessica is going to force his hand, and he is about to leverage not just his position but hers as well. He expects that Jessica values her career over her desire to get even, but he does not know himself anymore. He doesn't dare make the mistake of assuming he knows her.

-

In the same way Mike knows his sympathy for the plaintiff ended when she began threatening the firm, he knows that Harvey's, "I can't tell you everything that's going on here," is the end of the discussion.

Harvey tells Jessica, "Mike goes, I go," and he means every word, but those words are never meant to reach Mike's ears. Donna has no such qualms about the matter.

Trevor risks Mike's relationship with Jenny (because he hurt) and job (because he wanted to make Mike hurt too), and that is one thing. At least Mike provoked him on that front. He threw Harvey's reputation under the bus just because he could, though.

Mike is not a vindictive person by nature. He is a protective one.

Trevor's social security number is 990-36-7249.

-

"I had a friend," Harvey says, "who found out that his mother never loved his father."

"You and Daniel are cut from the same cloth," Jessica says.

Today is the day Harvey used a grieving daughter as political leverage. It seems that Cameron Dennis taught him more than he thought.

-

"I'm not Harvey," Jessica says. "I don't need a computer."

She is, as always, correct.

Forty-six minutes later, Mike feels as if he's just gone through a duel. On horseback. With a sword. He knows precisely three things.

1) To call it a draw is optimistic at best, a disconnect from reality at worst.

2) If she designed the questions on the New York bar exam, there would be a lot fewer lawyers in the state than there are now.

3) He thought he was scared of Jessica Pearson because she had the authority to fire him. He was wrong. There are many, many reasons to be scared of Jessica Pearson, and limiting them to her position of power does her a disservice indeed.

-

In another world, Harvey throws himself on the proverbial hand grenade, accepts the terms as they have been given to him, and fires Mike. He has ruined people for lesser crimes than exposing Jessica, the woman who encouraged and manipulated and threatened him into the man he is today.

He sits the kid down intending to break the news, except --.

\-- except she _told_ him to mentor the kid and he _did_. They've spent days speaking in movie quotes and nights crafting strategies, spent more time together than apart. He knows Mike's shoe size (11), least favourite topping on a pizza (green olives; no taste, the kid has no taste), and Grandmother's favourite flower (tulips.)

As it turns out, this is not the world where he is able to do that.

She had to have known he would get attached.


End file.
